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Observations of Molecules in Comets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

P. D. Feldman
P. D. Feldman*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 USA

Abstract

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Ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy of comets has identified a large number of species in the coma, most of which appear to be the photodissociation and photoionization products of the “parent” molecules evaporated directly from the cometary nucleus. Analyses of cometary spectra support the icy conglomerate model of the nucleus with H2O as the dominant ice species. Two molecules detected in the ultraviolet, CO and S2, are of particular interest to the study of the cosmogonic evolution of cometary grains. CO appears to be a highly variable constituent from comet to comet, while S2, first observed in comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock in 1983, is found in no other celestial source. Both of these molecules appear to be parent molecules.

Type
Comets
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 120: Astrochemistry , 1987 , pp. 417 - 424
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1987 

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